There are many situations in which one or more components of an assembled article are bonded together with adhesives, and there is a need to separate them. For example an assembly of adhesively-bonded components may contain a defective component and the other good components may be salvaged for re-use by separating them from the defective component. Various techniques have been developed and tried for separating such components. For instance, sometimes solvents are used to soften and/or dissolve the adhesive bonds. However, some of these solvents include hazardous chemicals that may physically harm persons using them to separate the components. Some of the solvents include oily ingredients and if they are used undesirable oily residues may remain on the components. Various dry debonding techniques have been developed to avoid these and other adverse effects of using solvents to separate adhesively-bonded components. For example, sometimes components may be separated by mechanical force. However oftentimes such force results in damage to one or more of the good components being salvaged. To overcome that risk, sometimes bonded parts are heated in a conventional or microwave oven because heat weakens the bonds of some adhesives. However, a problem with such heating is that oftentimes the bonded material must be heated to temperatures greater than 250° C. in order to soften the adhesive enough to permit separation of the components. When heated to such temperatures mismatches in the coefficients of thermal expansion between the components may induce thermo-mechanical stresses that may be sufficient to break one or more of the components. Also, the length of time required for debonding using a conventional oven or a microwave oven is often excessive, which may have adverse economic consequences. Furthermore, debonding in ovens often requires complex and expensive fixturing to separate the components after the adhesive bond is weakened by heat. What are needed therefore are improved devices and methods for separating components of an assembled article that are adhesively bonded to one another.